Entries Tagged as 'Politics'

November 3rd, 2018, 5:00pm by Sam Wang

It’s not too late to vote absentee! Stop by your local clerk’s office ASAP to request or drop off an absentee ballot. All ballots MUST be in your clerk’s hands by 8 p.m. on Tuesday. https://t.co/IzmzTNvILn — Progress Michigan (@ProgressMich) November 3, 2018 Whether you are progressive, conservative, or independent, there are many reasons to […]

October 6th, 2018, 3:52pm by Sam Wang

It’s exactly one month to the election. Here are three ways to maximize your power. 1) Students: Figure out the place where your vote matters the most. This site, Make My Vote Matter, figures it out for you. It’s developed by a scientist, Ursula Wong-Brown, and shows you which address has more competitive House/Senate/governor races. […]

August 19th, 2018, 9:59am by Sam Wang

Despite the near-certainty that Democrats will win the national popular vote for House races in November, I still estimate a 10% probability (and other forecasters, up to 25%) that Republicans will retain control. Why? Gerrymandering. More than anyone else, Tom Hofeller was responsible for the modern age of aggressive redistricting. He carried out this program […]

November 17th, 2017, 9:48am by Sam Wang

Democrats scored big wins last week in New Jersey and Virginia elections. Julian Zelizer and I chew it over with Larry Sabato and Geoffrey Skelley. Plus a tiny bit about whether Alabama will elect a child molester as senator, or choose a Democrat who prosecutes KKK terrorists. Life is full of hard choices. All in […]

August 17th, 2017, 12:09pm by Sam Wang

The route between public outrage and consequences for President Trump seems quite broken. Why? Julian Zelizer and I chew it over in the new Politics & Polls. The opening is especially lively. Later we get into the regular nerdery.

June 15th, 2017, 2:21pm by Sam Wang

Some news about HuffPost Pollster. Due to staff reductions, we have had to dramatically reduce the scope of what we track. — Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy) June 15, 2017 This is terrible news. As part of cutbacks at the Huffington Post, the tracking of polls will be curtailed dramatically. As reported by HuffPollster’s Ariel Edwards-Levy, they […]

June 7th, 2017, 6:21pm by Sam Wang

Our brains have powerful biases that help us maintain a coherent world view. However, sometimes those biases prevent us from integrating new evidence well. Today, the release of former FBI director James Comey provides an example. Most readers on the left and the right see it as powerful evidence that President Trump attempted to obstruct […]

June 1st, 2017, 3:20pm by Sam Wang

One of the more interesting post-election voices has been that of the magazine Teen Vogue. Normally one might think of Teen Vogue as being purely oriented toward culture and fashion…but the same could be said of Vanity Fair, GQ, and Rolling Stone – all of which have a strong political voice. Julian Zelizer and I interviewed […]

May 18th, 2017, 1:31pm by Sam Wang

Washington has been hit with a trifecta of catastrophic events in the past week: Trump fires FBI director Comey for investigating Russian collusion with the Trump campaign, then Trump tells secrets to the Russians in the Oval Office, then it emerges that Comey writes memos about all his conversations, including Trump trying to obstruct the […]